Lead Full Stack Engineer - Consumer Platform/App

About VAZA

VAZA is a Toronto-based consumer startup building the world's first monetized opinion market. We turn entertainment and sports debates into interactive, community-driven markets where users can increase the weight of their vote with monetary backing (capped at $100). Winners are paid out from the losing side through a proprietary algorithm.

Instead of opinions disappearing into comment sections, VAZA measures collective conviction and settles debates through consensus. In our first three months live, we grew to 50,000 users and processed over $1M in volume entirely organically, driven by 30M+ social views. People don't just want to argue online, they want their conviction to carry weight. We are building the infrastructure that turns cultural attention into measurable, monetized engagement.

Job Summary

We are looking for a Lead Technical Engineer to take ownership of the technical development, infrastructure, and scalability of the VAZA platform. You will work directly with the founding team and be responsible for managing and improving every technical aspect of the product as we scale our rapidly growing user base.

This role is ideal for someone who wants real ownership of a product used by thousands of users, and who thrives in a startup environment where technical decisions directly shape the future of the platform.

You will help drive the architecture, performance, and reliability of a high-growth consumer application with ambitions of reaching a massive global audience.

Job Responsibilities

• Own and manage the full technical stack of the VAZA platform.
• Maintain and scale a production consumer application serving a growing global user base.
• Design, build, and optimize new features and system architecture.
• Manage backend infrastructure, database performance, and platform reliability.
• Monitor system performance and resolve production issues.
• Implement CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, and deployment workflows.
• Manage cloud infrastructure and deployment environments.
• Ensure application security, reliability, and performance under scale.
• Maintain payment infrastructure and integration with payment providers.
• Improve monitoring, observability, and alerting systems.
• Collaborate closely with founders on product direction and technical roadmap.

Core Technical Requirements:

1. Next.js/React Expertise

• Server/client components understanding
• App router patterns
• React hooks and state management
• Performance optimization (lazy loading, code splitting)

2. Database & Backend

• PostgreSQL/Supabase proficiency
• Database migrations and schema design
• Real-time subscriptions understanding
• Row-level security (RLS) concepts

3. TypeScript

• Strong typing practices
• Interface/type definitions
• Error handling patterns

4. Infrastructure & DevOps

• Basic AWS/cloud knowledge
• Environment variable management
• CI/CD pipeline understanding
• Monitoring and logging basics

Infrastructure Requirements:

1. Vercel Deployment

• Understanding of serverless/edge functions
• Environment variable management in Vercel dashboard
• Build optimization (analyzing build times, bundle sizes)
• Preview deployments and branch protection
• Domain/DNS configuration
• Vercel Analytics and Web Vitals monitoring
• Edge Config for feature flags
• Understanding of Vercel's automatic scaling

2. Railway Deployment

• PostgreSQL database hosting and backups
• Service health monitoring
• Database connection pooling
• Understanding Railway's pricing/resource limits
• Environment synchronization between services
• Database migration strategies in production

3. CI/CD Pipeline Setup (Priority Skills)

• GitHub Actions workflow creation
• Automated testing setup:
• Unit tests (Jest/React Testing Library)
• Integration tests
• E2E tests (Playwright/Cypress)
• Pre-deployment checks:
• TypeScript compilation
• ESLint/Prettier enforcement
• Build success verification
• Database migration automation
• Automated preview deployments
• Production deployment gates

4. Monitoring & Observability

• Error tracking setup (Sentry/LogRocket)
• Performance monitoring (Vercel Analytics)
• Database query performance tracking
• Uptime monitoring (UptimeRobot/Pingdom)
• Log aggregation and analysis
• Setting up alerts for:
• High error rates
• Slow API responses
• Database connection issues
• Payment webhook failures

5. Security & Best Practices

• Secret rotation strategies
• API rate limiting implementation
• CORS configuration
• Security headers setup
• Database backup automation
• Incident response planning

Additional Experience

• Experience building and maintaining live consumer applications
• Payment API integrations
• Fiat and Crypto on ramps and off ramps
• Production scaling experience
• CDN and caching strategies
• Git workflow and branching strategies

This is a startup leadership role with compensation structured to reward early contributors.

Compensation includes:

• Monthly compensation
• Possible equity participation in the company
• Performance-based bonuses as the company grows
• Opportunity to play a key role in building a global consumer platform

We are looking for someone excited about long-term impact and ownership, not just a typical engineering role.

You will work closely with the founding team and technical leadership to gain deep exposure to the architecture and infrastructure of the VAZA platform.

• This role offers:
• Direct mentorship from CTO
• Hands-on ownership of a live, scaling product
• Experience building and operating a high-growth consumer platform
• Opportunity to influence the long-term technical direction of the company

As VAZA scales, this role has the potential to evolve into a senior technical leadership position within the company.

This role is particularly well suited for engineers from University of Waterloo's Computer Science or Software Engineering programs who are interested in building real-world products that reach global users.

Unlike traditional roles where you work on isolated internal tools, this position gives you the opportunity to own critical parts of a live consumer platform used by thousands of users. Your work will directly impact the product, the infrastructure, and the scalability of VAZA as we continue to grow.

We are looking for someone who enjoys solving real production challenges, thinking about system design, and building technology that can scale globally.

If you're excited by the idea of joining a high-growth startup at an early stage, working closely with the founding team, and helping build a platform with the potential to reach millions of users, we encourage you to apply.

Additional Details:

• Location: Mostly Remote with some in-person sessions in Toronto/Brampton
• Full time position, 40 hours per week

Check us out to get a better idea of the platform: www.vazainc.com & @vazainc across all socials.